Category Archives: Supply Chain Relationship Management

In previous blogs I have argued that better and more collaborative relationships with your business partners are a relatively untapped source of competitive advantage. If this is the case, why would we need to consider bringing a close and collaborative … Continue reading →

It is always worth recalibrating yourself regarding your approach to negotiation on a regular basis. Regular negotiation training is a useful way to do this but a simple period of introspection can deliver the same value. This was brought home … Continue reading →

Can we go too hard in measuring our service providers? Performance measurement of service providers is a very fraught subject and challenges companies to find their ‘Goldilocks’ zone where performance measures fall neatly between too much measurement and not enough … Continue reading →

Have you thought about Justice recently? I don’t mean justice in terms of villains getting away with their crimes or the innocent being punished. When it comes to supply chain relationships, justice is an important concept. While justice has similarities … Continue reading →

I’ve written a few times about the importance of trust in business relationships and also about what to do in the absence of trust. It is worth now looking at what to do if trust is lost. Loss of trust … Continue reading →

Smart Supply Chain Managers know that it is important to monitor what is happening with their supply chain partners. The big question is which partners should they monitor? It is tempting to use Vilfredo Pareto’s principle and focus on the … Continue reading →

A lesson for those designing contingency and mitigation responses to risk events is that too much complexity can lead to its own problems. Sometimes our efforts to provide iron-clad guarantees that our supply chain won’t suffer loss result in systems … Continue reading →

The idea that collaboration with business partners is a successful and profitable approach is well accepted. This concept is also well supported by numerous case studies and research. Despite this support, many businesses struggle to move beyond lip service to … Continue reading →

In an ideal world we would be dealing with people we trusted and had achieved collaborative business relationships with. We would have measured and improved this relationship so that both parties were getting the value they needed – certainly an … Continue reading →

How well do you know your supply chain? I was prompted to raise this question after reading an article about counterfeit automotive parts and the dangers these can pose out on the road. A few years ago when I was … Continue reading →